Takeshi Manganji
Takeshi Manganji is a member and leader of the Manganji Dreams and the biggest rival of Kouya Marino. He was formerly a member of the Tobita Club and one of the teammates to Kouya's brother, Yuhya Marino. He is the champion of the current Asia Cup. Takeshi comes from a wealthy family that runs their own company, the Manganji Group. Takeshi’s Crush Gear is Gaiki, however in the first episode he is seen using Gougetsu to battle against Kouya. Appearance Takeshi is shown to have black hair and brown eyes. His hair is spiked upwards at the back and a few strands of hair protudes from his forehead (the number of hair strands ranges from four to six, and more rarely, three or seven). His usual outfit consists of a red jacket with several badges on it, and one of them has the word "GEAR" on the jacket's left sleeve. He also has a sleeveless black shirt (this is revealed near the end of the movie), dark blue slacks, gray socks and a pair of brown shoes. In his younger self (four years ago), Takeshi was seen wearing a white shirt with short red sleeves, black pants and a pair of green and white sneakers. He was occasionally seen wearing a red tuxedo, notably when he joined the Tobita Club and during his birthday party in the movie. Personality During tournaments, Takeshi is often seen calm and confident during Gear Fights. However, his level of emotions are changed in his final battle against Kouya as he becomes harsh to the latter and is seen sweating after winning the first round. It is discovered that Takeshi is emotionally disturbed of Yuhya's death and is hiding his feelings. Takeshi later forgets his hatred to Kouya after winning the World Cup similar to how Kouya forgetting hatred towards him after he defeated Kouya in the Asian Cup finals. Despite his cold personality, Takeshi is shown helping the Tobita Club in some circumstances. This includes his offer to give money to the club during its crisis, telling Kouya the importance of supporting his teammates after showing Jirou's match against Taki on television, bringing Kouya to San Francisco by his private airplane after seeing him stranded in the airport alone. Takeshi also shows concern for Kouya's behavior towards U-YA as well as his wrist injury. He also saved Kouya from disqualification by setting up his colleague Eddie Kobayashi by changing the Gear Pancratum photos of the latter by those of panda bears in Episode 55. History Involvement in the Tobita Club Takeshi's interest in Gear Fighting began after he came across the Tobita Clubhouse during his ride with with his bodyguard, Kurosaki. Inside Takeshi met "Yuhya Marino" a popular Gear Fighter, Takeshi began to admire him and eventually became a member of the Tobita Club. Yuhya trained Takeshi to be a Gear Fighter and encouraged him when he had his defeat in the World Cup. Takeshi also made a promise to Yuhya that they will train his younger brother, Kouya after the World Cup together. During the day of the Crush Gear World Cup Finals Yuhya is involved in a tragic accident and dies. The accident impacted Takeshi's life in a major way. Feeling abandoned and lost Takeshi took charge of training other members in the Tobita Club alone. As a result, he is seen as a cold-hearted boy who does not have any feelings. However, Takeshi’s situation is otherwise – he actually repressed his feelings and hid his sadness inside. He believes since he admired Yuhya so much that there is no one in the club who suffered from his death more than him. As Takeshi grew he eventually became the top player in the Tobita Club. The Fall of The Tobita Club Four years after the death of "Yuhya Marino", Takeshi and "Lilika Tobita" were left in charge of selecting new candidates for the Tobita Club. Eventually Kouya Marino, Yuhya's younger brother is sheduled to fight for a place in the club, but shows up an hour late. Unimpressed with Kouya's lack of enthusiasm, Takeshi decides to make an example of him and challenges Kouya himself. To everyone's amazement Kouya ends up deafeating Takeshi, thus becoming a new member. However Lilika later finds out that Takeshi let Kouya win, so he could quit and form a club of his own. This leads to the resignation of almost every member as well, pushing the Tobita Club to to the verge of closing down. Kouya soon finds out and pleads with Takeshi to return to the Tobita Club, But Takeshi divulges that the Tobita Club is still controlled by the reputation of Yuhya, and if he stays there, he will never be recognised as an individual .He also states that because of Kouya's lack of respect for his team and the sport, he doesn't deserve to be called a Crush Gear Fighter. Battle at The Mangnji Building A few days after leaving the Tobita Club Takeshi hosts a Club Opening Party at the Manganji Building in the hopes of recruiting new members. Many famous Gear Fighter's are in attendance during the event including "Jirou Oriza". An exhibition match was supposed to take place between Takeshi and French Champion "Bernard Stellan" but Kouya shows up and challenges Takeshi. Believing that Kouya will be no match for him Takeshi accepts and they make thier way to the Manganji Rooftop Arena. Unbeknownst to Takeshi however, Kouya uses his brother's famous Crush Gear "Garuda Eagle" to fight with. During thier fight Kouya manges to hold his own against Takeshi, but unkowingly damages "Garuda Eagle" in the process. Eventually both gears are knocked out of the ring and the match is a draw. However Kouya almost falls trying to catch his Gear but is luckily saved by "Jirou Oriza". After the match Takeshi leaves via helicopter and states to Kouya that he had his chance and the next time they faced would have to be in a tournament. The Manganji Cup and The Mighty Gears Several weeks later, the Mangaji Group decided to host a new crush gear tournament known as The Manganji Cup,in the hopes of attracting attention from several Gear Clubs and companies. Many major gear fighting enthusiasts attended the event, including the chairman of the Japanese Crush Gear Association.This event was interupted by the unintended appearance of the newly formed Tobita Club. The Tobita Club hoped they could compete in the tournament in order to spread thier club's reputation. However Takeshi refused to allow them to compete. Unwilling to accept Takeshi's decision Kouya chooses to call Takeshi a coward, in the hopes he will change his mind. Unwilling to budge Takeshi proposes an ultimatum, in which case the Tobita Club are offered the chance to compete in an exhibition match against a team of Takeshi's choosing, known as the Mighty Gears. Unable to convince Takeshi any further the Tobita Club accept his offer. . Trivia * In an interview with the series producer Naotake Furusato, he described the surname "Manganji" as having an image of wealth. He jokingly added that Japanese people are suckers for names that end in "ji”. "Interview Side B." Sunrise Inc. Retrieved on January 20, 2009. * He had never been disqualified for destroying Francis Ledger's Gear Great Wallaby despite the announcement saying if a Gear Fighter destroys their opponents Gear one more time they will be disqualified. * Has a liking to destroy his opponents Gear's everytime he uses King of the Dragon Fighters (although Kouya manages to avoid and survived the special attack few times). References Category:Characters (Crush Gear Turbo) Category:Manganji Dreams